


anchored driftwood

by mildlydiscouraging



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Crying, Emotions, M/M, Marriage Proposal, More Fluff, Post-Canon, Relationship Discussions, Walks On The Beach, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 15:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12257502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildlydiscouraging/pseuds/mildlydiscouraging
Summary: The number of guests dwindles as the night goes on and tired people go home full of happiness and love from the evening, but two of the departing figures, instead of heading home, walk further up the beach.





	anchored driftwood

**Author's Note:**

> can be read as a standalone or as a sequel to my previous fic "[say i'm the one you want](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11872971)". basically the context is carey and killian's wedding, but if you liked this, you'll like that, and imo they're both pretty great

Water sloshes up against a stony shore past the bluffs. The Stillwater Sea is an ironic name at the moment, as the sun sets purple and blue over the tides and its small flowering islands. The beach is made of pebbles, white and rust and grey and beryl mingling together in a flat horizon beyond high hills and their tall windswept grass. Dotting the shore here and there are the charred remains of campfires and large logs of driftwood similar to the kind that makes up the temple high on the hill, but at this time of evening it is mostly flat and empty.

That temple, and the party outside of it, are well lit. The light from the torches surrounding the party are steady, but there's a ball of enchanted flames hanging over the dance floor that shifts color to match the tone of the song playing. A tall elven woman flicks her hands at it in time to the music as a group of children dance wildly underneath it, their parents presumably exhausted at their tables. The number of guests dwindles as the night goes on and tired people go home full of happiness and love from the evening.

Two of the departing figures, instead of heading home, walk further up the beach. Taako and Kravitz are strolling along the shore hand in hand. They are quiet, listening to the waves. Every once in a while the water will come a little too close and Kravitz will slow down to look warily at it, but all it takes to bring him back to this plane is Taako nudging their shoulders together and moving them a foot or so further inland.

"I promise I used to be good at my job."

"Uh huh, sure babe, despite the fact that I've never actually seen you reap any soul ever, just fall in love with or recruit them. The first time we met I had to do your damn job for you, with the ghost monster?"

"Listen, I'm good at it, that was all your fault."

"Sorry for the kill steal?"

"No it was just... You."

"What."

"Well..."

"Oh. Oh, I get it. Cuz I'm hot. Cool. Wanna get married?" Taako throws it in at the end, trying to make it sound like he hasn't been thinking of a way to bring it up since before they even left the party.

It doesn't work, and Kravitz slows down to look at him, inscrutable.

"Are you proposing?" He says with the tiniest of smiles, like he's ready to laugh it off, just in case.

Taako shrugs slowly in a way that doesn't mean no but may well mean yes and Kravitz's face totally shifts.

He raises an eyebrow. " _Are_ you?"

"Don't do that, you're the one who gave me that look earlier."

"What look?"

Taako tries to recreate the look, but apparently doesn't quite get it across, because Kravitz continues to look at him both like he's confused and a little embarrassed.

"You gave me a  _look_ , alright," Taako says. He defiantly straightens his creamy white flower crown, which somehow haven't wilted after an entire day of wear. "At the beginning of the ceremony, you looked at me, and I definitely didn't make it up, I mean, I'm pretty sure it wasn't wishful thinking."

Kravitz looks considerately for a moment at the horizon, his thoughts passing his face, before cautiously asking, "Is that something you would wish for?"

Even in the dying light, Taako's blush is evident. He starts swinging their clasped hands and tries to looks coy. "Maybe," he says in a sing song voice tight with anxiety.

When Kravitz kisses his cheek Taako's smile goes from nervous to pleased. They walk a little further and while part of Taako is occupied with patting himself on the back for having the foresight to transfigure his shoes back to flats before abandoning solid ground, the rest of his mind is still running wild.

"Okay but really," he asks, "you wanna be chained to this for eternal damnation?"

Kravitz frowns, but in a smiling way. "You know that's not what I do, right?"

"Chill, bone boy, I know. I remember, brick ghosthouse." Taako sighs and looks down at their joined hands.

"It's just... if we get hitched, that's it, yeah? Like, you can't die, and I live for pretty much forever. And then even when I die," Kravitz flinches like he does every time Taako references his own death and Taako squeezes his hand, "I mean, I don't wanna be presumptuous, but I'm totally down to join Team Overkill. I know you're all dramatic as fuck, but the afterlife ain't seen nothing yet."

Kravitz laughs quietly at the name. "We'd be lucky to have you."

"Oh, you couldn't stop me even if you wanted to," Taako says. "At the very least, Lup wouldn't let you."

Taako is able to keep up his teasing demeanor for only a few seconds longer before he drops it, tired from the effort. "Forever is a real long time," he says after a short while.

"It is," Kravitz agrees. He doesn't say anything more, though, knowing Taako is going somewhere and just needs time.

"I wouldn't want you to regret it, y'know?" Taako waves uselessly in some illustration. "When you get tired of me or whatever."

At that, Kravitz stops. He looks straight at Taako in his unnerving unblinking way and simply stares for a moment in shock. Taako can't hold his gaze for long and looks off, watching a couple of seagulls tilting through the sky. They're farther down the beach than Taako realized, and he gets nervous for a second thinking about how far it would be to run if things get awkward.

"How would that ever happen?" Kravitz asks. He sounds disbelieving and also hurt? Which is confusing in and of itself, but also makes thick guilt rise up in the back of Taako's throat. "Why would... Taako, you're the most interesting person I have ever met, and I've met many, many people. How could  _anyone_  ever get tired of  _you_?"

"I don't know man," Taako sighs, "like, I can't tell people how I feel, I'm never satisfied, I can't take risks—I'm cold and mean and callous, and a total klepto and a dick to everyone, including and especially the people I love. I mean, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kind of an asshole."

"You feel things," Kravitz says. "You feel things all the time, and you show your feelings, how you care. Maybe you don't say the words, but I can tell you love me in the things you do, when you tell me what you're really thinking, when you make me tea when I've had a bad day."

"But I should though! I mean hell, dude, it took me like four tries to tell you I loved you and I knew you definitely already knew. I can't, like, be vulnerable, you know that."

Kravitz takes one of Taako's hands in both of his. "You are. You can. I don't want it to sound like you're bad at hiding your feelings, but you kind of are. They shine through in all of your interactions with everyone you love: Lup, Angus, Merle and Magnus, me. Every moment I'm with you I can feel how much you love me. You don't have to worry about that."

"And besides," he adds, "I don't care if you're a kleptomaniac or insatiable or overly cautious—If anything, I appreciate that last one as much as I do anything else that keeps you alive."

There's a clatter as Taako kicks some of the pebbles near his foot. "I'd say right back atcha but I guess it's a little late for that."

"I love you so much Taako," Kravitz continues with his stupidly earnest face, "and I'd be honored to spend eternity with you. I—" He looks down at their shoes. "I just hope you feel the same."

Taako drops Kravitz's hands to cross his arms, missing the flicker of pain that crosses his glance up. "Okay, now what the fuck does that mean?"

He waits somewhat impatiently, watching Kravitz fiddle with the end of his shirt, thinking about how it had come untucked thirty minutes ago, wondering how they went from that to this.

"You could have anyone in the world," Kravitz says without looking up, "almost literally. I'm honored you'd choose me, but I won't pretend you don't have other options. Eventually, I— I'm sure someone else will come along, and you'll—"

"No."

Taako's voice doesn't waver in the slightest. When Kravitz looks back up at him, his face is stony—fixed and almost angry.

"No way." Taako kisses Kravitz hard. Under his hands, Kravitz's shoulders are cool like night sand on bare feet, and it's so comforting that Taako finally loses his battle of wills and starts crying.

Unable to continue, Taako pulls away and wipes at his face with the back of his hand. His sniffle is more of a snort and embarrassingly loud, and for a second he wants to throw himself in the ocean to get it over with, but then he remembers that dying still won't get him out of this one and sighs wetly instead.

When he opens his eyes, though, he both is glad he didn't throw himself in the ocean and wants to all the more, because now he can see Kravitz crying and it's simultaneously heartbreaking and emboldening.

"I love you." Taako puts one hand back on Kravitz's shoulder even as the other continues wiping his face. "I want  _you_ , numskull."

He gently raps two knuckles against Kravitz's forehead but doesn't even get a smile. As Kravitz takes a shaky breath, Taako can see everything crowded in the front of his mind—the worthlessness and the worry, the anxiety and the resignation—not because it's apparent but because he knows what it feels like to be drowning like that.

"You don't..." Kravitz breathes out just as stutteringly as his inhale was. "There's so many people you haven't met, that haven't even been born. Literally everyone in the world loves you, and—"

"And  _I_  love  _you_." Taako grabs Kravitz's hands so tightly even he feels the hurt. "Come on, man, we just did this. Do I have be all emotionally vulnerable and shit again?"

"There's no one like you," Kravitz says, "and—"

"There's no one like you either, are you kidding me? Handsome dorky grim reaper with an arsenal of dumb accents who will do pottery with me even though he kinda sucks at it? Who else am I gonna find who's enough of an asshole to like that still looks at me like you do?"

Taako wants to do something more, something that will stop this conversation from having to happen while also fixing everything, but there's no magic word to skip this part over.

"You're the only person who—  _Fuck_ , you're not dust, alright?"

Kravitz, no longer actively crying as he pays close attention, tilts his head questioningly.

"That wasn't in the jellyfish broadcast, huh?" Taako sighs and shakes the hair back out of his face with little success as strands stick to tear tracks. "Alright, well, let's just say things got kinda bad during the whole 'forced to save the world every year' deal. I sort of... stopped feeling anything. Because what was the point? We already knew every year that no matter what we'd never see any of these people or places ever again, so what was the point in getting attached? Everyone was dust in the end. It wasn't worth it."

"Then what happened?"

Kravitz still sounds upset and his voice is watery but it doesn't waver. It bolsters Taako and he says plainly, "You. Forgetting everything wasn't much better, but then people started sticking around—those two idiots, the Bureau, boy wonder, you. And then, y'know, I got my sister back, and the whole universe finally figured out how great I am, and now they all love me, but... You were there before any of that. Everyone else is just fan service."

"I love you," Kravitz says with a sad-ish smile. His fingertips brush Taako's cheek and another couple of tears make their escape, retracing tracks bright in the moonlight.

"I know, bubbeleh." Taako tweaks his ear. "Love you too."

They stand there for a moment, listening to the sound of the waves and each other's breathing, both, for once, subconscious and natural. Normally Taako would be preoccupied with half a dozen other things, his mind rampant even as his face is vacant, but he doesn't have to right now. All he needs is Kravitz's hands on his waist and the light breeze drying his tears.

"Here's the plan," Taako says when a particularly close seagull breaks the silence. He straightens his hair and tries to do damage control on his running mascara to no avail. "You and me are gonna go back up there, make our goodbyes to the happy couple, all that good stuff. We'll go home, sleep for a week, have slow touchy-feely sex in a sea of clean white sheets, eat more breakfast than is appropriate for two people when only one of them needs to eat..."

As Kravitz chuckles, Taako reaches out to wipe the tears off his cheek too.

"And then we're gonna vacay in the phantom zone and I'm gonna charm the shit out of your bird mom so when I die she'll let me accessorize my reaper gear."

With this, Taako hooks his hand through Kravitz's elbow and turns them back towards the wedding party. It has started to get actually dark now, and the few remaining dancers are under the only light for miles. They've shifted to a warm orange, and Taako can spot Lup and Barry slow dancing alone in the middle of the glow. It makes his heart arch up in his chest, and he pulls Kravitz closer.

"Alright," Kravitz laughs. He puts his hand over Taako's as they walk and squeezes gently. "As long as you don't call her my mom to her face."

"Hmm... Fine," Taako caves, "but she better at least pull out the baby pictures, that's non-negotiable. I'm talking everything from bubble baths to awkward goth prom, no skelly stone unturned. I need to bank that cliche mother-son-in-law bonding time."

The pebbles overturned by their feet are a warm background noise under their chatter as they head back towards the welcoming warmth of the quieting party. As their footsteps and soft words fade, the ocean takes over once more. It's a quiet rushing, a blanket of sound, and Taako leans his head on Kravitz's shoulder, their left hands intertwined in the crook of his elbow. Their footsteps, as always, follow them.

**Author's Note:**

> taako's flower crown is an homage to "[happy ever afters](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11969724)" by adelaide_rain, which is a beautiful and amazing fic completely wipes my mind of anything over than love every time i read it
> 
> note: taako doesn't know what fan service really means, but i just wanna make sure y'all know that i do. the views of the characters withing do not reflect the author's etc etc except how they do, y'all know the drill
> 
> hope y'all enjoy this!!! i know i said i might not be online so much rn but i totally nailed my oral report for my austen class and i'm feeling Pretty Good
> 
> tumblr @[moonfullofstars](http://moonfullofstars.tumblr.com)  
> ko-fi @[mildlydiscouraging](https://ko-fi.com/mildlydiscouraging)


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